MEs such as mobile (cellular) telephones include a UICC which, among other things, holds secure data for identifying the user to the core network. The UICC is a smart card that has an inbuilt microprocessor and memory that can run a number of software applications. The UICC is a very secure element in a mobile communication system. Moreover, thanks to the definition of the high speed protocol and the increase in the UICC flash memory size, the UICC can now be considered as a good location for applications which require a high security level, such as mobile payment applications.
In one existing implementation, UICC applications are accessible via the UICC services menu (or USIM toolkit menu). The End User has to pass through several menus and sub-menus (which are dynamically built step by step using USIM toolkit proactive commands at the time the User enters the UICC services menu) before reaching the actual UICC applications. FIGS. 4a and 4b illustrate the steps performed to access a UICC application—in this example a game application “Enigma”. In view of the messages transmitted between the ME and the UICC (illustrated in FIG. 4b) and in view of the dynamic generation of the menus and sub-menus, the whole process can take quite a long time especially on low performance mobile terminals. Another drawback with this existing implementation is due to the present ISO interface: most of the existing proposed items in the UICC services menus are currently displayed under text format. Adding icons/pictures to these menu items would increase the amount of data to be sent from the UICC to the ME and would therefore slow down the presentation/display of UICC services menus/sub-menus items to the end user.
Another implementation, based on the Smart Card Web Server (SCWS), has already been defined by ETSI SCP (Rel-7)/OMA but it has not yet been implemented today. For many, the solution based on the SCWS would be the heart of future generations of User Interface to access the content of a UICC, i.e. the end user will be using a Web page-like interface to access the content of a UICC (applications, phonebook, SMS, local web server, etc. . . . ). The main reason why the SCWS is not really deployed today is due to the protocol stack and physical interface underneath. The SCWS is based on HTTP which usually runs over a TCP/IP stack. The support of TCP/IP in the UICC has been defined in ETSI SCP Rel-7 (see ETSI standards documents TS 102 221, TS 102 600 and TS 102 223). There are currently no commercial products (both UICC and ME) that support this feature yet. Moreover, there are also no existing mobile handsets that support the defined High Speed Protocol (USB) physical interface.
Although the SCWS is identified as the right candidate for the next generation of User Interface for accessing the UICC content, accessing UICC applications will still require several steps, i.e. launch the ME Browser application and enter the SCWS URL, browse the UICC until reaching the application's location, then select/launch the application. The inventor has realised that this process will still be cumbersome for the end user and that a more user friendly way for users to access the UICC applications would be desirable.